Trail Mixes
If you want to do something good for your health and budget, make a great value trail mix a regular part of your diet. Great value trail mix is also a time saver for those who seem to always have a busy schedule and can benefit from convenient, pre-made snack mixes.
Trail mix is an extremely versatile snack. It’s an ideal portable snack to pack when you’re going on an outdoor adventure. It’s also a convenient item to pack in a lunch bag.
Trail mixes are also a fantastic snack for family night. By keeping a variety of mixes on hand, everyone can choose their favorite blend and enjoy a bag of trail mix while watching a movie, playing board games, or doing whatever your family enjoys doing together.
If you make trail mix bulk purchases, you can stock your pantry with an assortment of different healthy trail mixes. That will ensure that you always have a nutritional, delicious snack that you and anyone in your family can enjoy anytime. Each mix has its own unique characteristics, yet they all qualify as a nutritionally rich treat.
Why is trail mix called trail mix?
Fondly known as GORP (“good old raisins and peanuts”), trail mix generally refers to any combination of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, granola, and even pieces of chocolate. Trail mix got its name because it was developed as a portable and nutritious snack convenient to take along on hikes.
What is usually in trail mix?
There are many combinations that constitute trail mix, but some of the most common ingredients include the following:
- Nuts, including almonds, cashews, walnuts, or pecans.
- Peanuts or baked soybeans.
- Dried fruits such as cranberries, apricots, apples, banana chips, or candied orange peel.
- Chocolate, including chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or M&M’s.
- Cereals, including Granola, Cheerios, or Chex.
How long does trail mix last?
If you store your trail mix properly, you can keep it fresh for about six months. This means storing your trail mix in sealed containers in a cool and dark place. However, if you want to extend the shelf life, you can place your trail mix in zip lock bags, remove as much air as possible, and place in the freezer.
Healthy Trail Mix Ingredients
We selected the ingredients in our healthy trail mixes specifically because of the many health benefits they offer and their nutritional benefits as a whole.
Our mixes include heart-healthy nuts such as almonds, peanuts, and Brazil nuts. These nuts also have qualities that make them beneficial in maintaining proper cholesterol levels, stabilizing blood pressure, and supporting insulin levels. These nuts are a good source of vitamins such as vitamin E and B2. They contain folate, niacin, Thiamine, Pantothenic acid, Pyridoxine Riboflavin, and omega-3 fatty acid as well.
When you choose a trail mix containing cranberries as part of your snack routine, you’ll be getting phytonutrients, protein, copper, iron, manganese, calcium, zinc, and other beneficial nutrients.
Some of our healthy trail mix choices include raisins. Raisins are a good source of potassium, flavonoids, resveratrol, and fiber. While raisins and cranberries add sweetness to a trail mix, there are times when you may also crave chocolate.
Dark chocolate is included in some of our trail mix selections. Dark chocolate earns its place in a healthy diet because of the many health benefits associated with it. Dark chocolate has been shown to support heart health and cognitive function. It also contains fiber, iron, copper, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, selenium, and antioxidants.
Is trail mix healthy?
While some blends of trail mix are remarkably healthy and tasty, other blends may just be pure calorie bombs. If you have a trail mix that contains nuts and dried fruit as the main ingredients, you’ll be getting nutrients that people often find difficult to squeeze into their diets, including antioxidants, fiber, and healthy fats. So if you’re looking to maximize the health properties of your trail mix, Here’s what you should be looking for:
- While nuts can be excellent sources of nutrition, you should really avoid mixes that contain sugar-coated, salt-coated, and/or oil-roasted nuts.
- If the mix starts to get heavy on the candy, chocolate, and deep-fried crispy components, your trail mix is no longer a healthy choice.
- If you have a flavored savory trail mix, make sure you check the sodium content.
- Always check the added sugar content as well since you really want to eliminate or minimize that.
- Always consider the serving size. The serving size for most trail mixes is 1/4 cup, which is about one handful. If there’s a trail mix with a high-calorie content with smaller serving sizes, you may be looking at an unhealthy blend.
How many calories are in trail mix?
At first glance, you might be concerned about the calorie count of these visually enticing healthy trail mix selections. But once you really examine each mix, you’ll see that you can reap the health benefits and get a considerable amount of the daily required value of certain vitamins and nutrients without exceeding 200 calories. The calorie count for these mixes falls within a range of 120 to 250 calories per serving. And even if you overdo it, a bag of trail mix is far more beneficial and more in line with a weight-loss plan than many of the unhealthy snack choices you might be tempted to make and over-consume.
Making trail mix bulk buys a regular part of your shopping plan is a budget-friendly way to support a healthy or weight loss diet plan. It’s better for your overall health to fill your pantry with healthy snacks instead of high-calorie snacks that offer no health or nutritional benefits. Although you’ll be getting a significant amount of calories, they’ll be bound up with potent nutritional value.
How do you make your own trail mix?
The best part about trail mix is that you can do virtually anything you want to make it perfect for you. While you can start with a trail mix blend to start, it doesn’t need to end there. Use your creativity and incorporate the following ingredients to customize the perfect trail mix for your tastes in whatever quantity or variety.
Nuts
Nuts are superstars in the nutrition department, loaded with protein, healthy unsaturated fats, antioxidants, fiber, and other potent vitamins and minerals. Make sure you choose the unsalted and unsweetened nuts, whether they’re raw or roasted, so you can keep your sugar and sodium content at a minimum. Some of the best nuts to choose for trail mix include pistachios, almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, Brazil nuts, pecans, and pine nuts.
Seeds
If you have a nut allergy, or you’re just looking to mix things up a bit, incorporate some seeds into your trail mix. They provide many of the same nutritional benefits as nuts, and some are actually more nutritionally-dense.
Some favorite seeds to include are pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. For example, hemp seeds are total superfoods loaded with incredibly healthy omega-3 fatty acids, gamma-linolenic acid, protein, zinc, iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium.
Dried fruit
Dried fruit can be a great way to get in a lot of nutrition as well, as they are dense sources of fiber, antioxidants, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and K. However, dried fruit is also dense in sugar, so make sure you pay attention to the ingredient lists and serving sizes. You may be surprised to know that many dried fruits contain added sugar and oils, which you should truly try to avoid as much as possible. This is particularly true of cranberries, although it’s very difficult to find these naturally tart fruits without some sort of sweetener added.
Some of the best dried fruits to add to your trail mix blend include dried apples, cherries, goji berries, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, apricots, raisins, figs, pineapple chunks, dates, and mangos.
Grains
Did you know you can even add some healthy dried grains to your mix? Add some crunch and fiber to your trail mix by choosing whole grains such as shredded wheat cereal, Cheerios, Chex, bran flakes, whole wheat crackers, granola, puffed rice cereal, toasted oats, or even some air-popped popcorn.
Sweets
There’s a way to navigate your diet and still add some sweets to your trail mix. If you’re looking for something sweet, opt for dark chocolate, cacao nibs, chocolate-covered coffee beans, or even dark chocolate-covered nuts.
Extras
Once you’ve got the basic components in place, you can always spice things up a bit by adding, well, spices! You can directly season your trail mix with sea salt, curry, ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, or even cayenne pepper. Some extras containing this extra bite also include wasabi peas, coconut flakes, dried ginger, and coffee beans.
